Laca-Enser ri Anzu
World-weary Laca-Enser ri Anzu is a mix of quiet determination, uncanny perception, and unusual philosophy. Though her prowess and ascending the ranks of mercenary group Moon Tree might seem like dumb luck, the reality is that Anzu, through her shamanistic connections to the world and its history, can predict events in the immediate future with sometimes startling accuracy. She cannot prophesy or see into the future so much as discern patterns and see tells throughout the environment and its people that might indicate what will happen next. In her eyes, the world is cyclical; what has happened will happen again, and it just takes a keen eye to see where in the cycle the world is now. She seems generally detached from her colleagues in Moon Tree and the various bounties and contracts they pursue. Appearance Accustomed to wintry climates and cold winds, Anzu is easily discerned by her large purple scarf. Even in warmer locations, Anzu is reluctant to shed the scarf and will overall dress more warmly than she "needs" to. Her clothes tend to be baggy, and she favors long jackets that she tends to not fully button at the bottom, effectively creating a sort of cloak-like appearance towards the hem. Most of Anzu's hair is cut short except for a few locks near her ears. Her hair is overall fairly unkempt, some of her bangs hanging near her violet eyes. When her hair gets too long and goes too far past her ears, she cuts it herself, generally not very well, but enough that her general appearance remains the same. Anzu is a rare skinwalker, specifically of avian descent; though she views herself as having been "cursed" by one who attacked her a little over ten years ago, the reality is that she is descended from such a creature somewhere in her lineage. She takes great pains to hide her true nature from virtually everybody around her and presents as a regular human. The scars she bears from the attack can be seen on her neck when her scarf does not cover them. Her "bestial" form resembles a rook, albeit one twisted and distorted by humanoid anatomy and monstrous features. She lacks a beak in this form, instead bearing a set of sharp teeth protruding from a leathery-skinned, blunted snout. Altogether, her proportions are gangly and hunched over. Despite the terrifying visage of this form, she retains full control over it almost to the point of over-compensating for its size and strength, and she is not a proper lycanthrope. Knowledge Checks Characters or creatures not within Moon Tree or familiar with its members add +5 to the DCs for these checks, as Anzu does not interact with people outside of Moon Tree much, if at all, and did not have a high profile at all prior to joining the organization. Knowledge: Local DC 10 Laca-Enser ri Anzu is a member of Moon Tree, a mercenary group. She has a small amount of renown in the group, mostly for her unusual set of talents. It is not known why she joined the mercenary group, as her colleagues tend to universally know about her general detachment from the group culture and its contracts. Despite this apparent apathy, she is generally helpful if given the opportunity. As a result, Moon Tree's higher-ups tend to not have any problems with her, though they also tend to not have any especially positive opinions of her, either. DC 15 Rumors say that Anzu was in a "bad state" when she joined up with Moon Tree; her current morose disposition is actually an improvement over her previous, near-fanatical state, where she seemed on edge and even paranoid of other people around her. It was rare for anyone except for Moon Tree's administration to even see her. In that time, Anzu scoured contracts as if looking for something, but turned down actually selecting any missions of her own and only took ones assigned to her. In her one year since joining Moon Tree, Anzu has calmed down significantly, now regarded as someone who might not even "feel" much emotionally. DC 20 Anyone who tries to befriend Anzu generally finds her to be a brick wall in social engagement; she does not react to invitations much except to turn them down and generally appears to be a "lone wolf". The most she will verbally interact with others outside of job-mandated conversation is sarcastic commentary. This is in spite of what seems to be a genuine compassion for others; on the rare occasion that Anzu was assigned to a contract where violence broke out, she reportedly would not stray from anyone too injured to move, even when it put herself in danger. DC 25 Of particular note is that Anzu has been spotted staring at a key that she takes out of her bag and always returns to that bag when she's done with it. The key appears to be wholly mundane and does not match any key used throughout Moon Tree's headquarters. To the knowledge of the rare few who circulate this strangely specific rumor, nobody has directly asked Anzu about the key. As such, it's anybody's guess what the key is for or why Anzu seems fixated on it. DC Natural 20 Anzu has a ring on her left hand, specifically on her ring finger, and keeps it hidden underneath her gloves. Once spotted, it was a simple matter to figure out that the ring is enchanted, faintly exuding an aura of transmutation magic. More specifically, that aura belongs to the spell feather fall. Given the ring's location and how Anzu will check on the ring obsessively as if making sure it's undamaged, it is fully possible this is not just a magical item, but some kind of wedding band. This would fit with her Senyaphin background (as definitively proven by various administrative documents kept by Sasaki Kohaku), as rings are passed between engaged or married couples as a sign of commitment. The magical component of this item isn't traditional, but it does conclusively point to Anzu having a connection to a user of arcane magic; a ring of feather falling specifically would be unlikely to be found or easily commissioned in Senyaphin, as it is ruled by seraphs that would balk at the idea of a "grounded" person having anything resembling flight. It is noteworthy that various "amorous" members of Moon Tree have made advances on Anzu in the past, and she didn't mention the ring even when turning them down, in spite of "I'm married to somebody else" being awfully compelling reasoning for shutting down unwanted romantic advances. It's possible that the ring is not indicative of romantic attachment... or, more likely, considering how she keeps it hidden, she doesn't want anyone to know. Knowledge: Nobility DC 15 Some of Anzu's clothes seem to be of fine Nazcan make and have designs mostly seen amid its wealthy nobles. Perhaps she has some sort of connection to that country. It's hard to tell, as she says little about her background or where she's from. The country itself is all but closed off due to the war with Senyaphin, so it's difficult to investigate within Nazca itself on top of that. DC 20 In a few situations in Moon Tree, Anzu's knowledge of a language called Necril has become relevant. Though Necril, the language of the dead and undead alike, is not a secret language by any means, it seems very unlikely that someone of Anzu's self-professed "non-academic" background would have learned it on her own just out of academic curiosity. More likely, somebody taught her. Given other evidence, that somebody was likely someone important enough in Nazca to be fluent in this odd language. Knowledge: Nature DC 10 Anzu's eye color is definitely unusual for a human. She could have some sort of odd, non-human heritage somewhere in her lineage, or perhaps she had a magic-related incident when she was younger. However, she definitely looks human other than that, so whatever it is, it must be very minor. DC 15 For a human, Anzu is oddly lithe and light on her feet, and this is without any sort of clear combat training. There is nothing in her build to suggest that she trained for this, which might indicate that this is a natural trait she has. Not only that, but her perceptive abilities can't possibly be human. They're augmented by several magical items, certainly, yet even without those items, Anzu seems to notice tiny details that no human should be able to. Knowledge: Religion DC 15 Anzu is a shaman, an unusual wielder of divine magic; that much is clear from the hexes and chants that drive her spells. However, even for a shaman, her particular brand of magic seems strange, as she does not appear to have a connection to a "spirit animal" or spirits at all, as is typical for shamans. Furthermore, there is nothing indicating that she has a patron or god that she reveres as a source of her divine magic. Characters familiar with shamanism or witches can consider this a DC 10 check. DC 20 It seems that Anzu's magic is driven not from a conscious connection to a being of higher power, but from the world itself. When she talks about philosophy or her general outlook on life, she has clear disdain for religion and faith in gods, but she talks tremendously about the world's history and the movements of the stars. A few of Moon Tree's scholars have branded her as a "Speaker for the Past," someone who is connected so intuitively to the world's past that they can see echoes of it in the future. This is supported by the apparent evidence that Anzu regularly meditates on the nature of the world and its cyclical history. From that meditation, she gains different spells each day based on what she identifies in the world's historical patterns. That said, it's possible that Anzu's power does, in fact, come from a god, just without her knowledge or conscious worship. Nobody seems sure how she might react if this was pointed out to her. Linguistics DC 15 Anzu's name is an archaic Auran off-shoot with enough cognates in modern Auran to have its meaning clear. "Laca-Enser" is her heritage, a tribe called Southern Dawn, and "Anzu" means "remember the sun". In an odd, sort of poetic way, her full name might be literally translated as "remember the sun of the southern dawn". Characters fluent in Auran can consider this a DC 10 check. DC 20 Laca-Enser ri Anzu's accent unmistakably puts her as being from Senyaphin, likely a rural community at that. In spite of that, she sometimes has Nazcan-adjacent manners of speech when she speaks Auran, such as speaking poetically about the moon or stars. Characters fluent in Auran or familiar with either Nazca or Senyaphin can consider this a DC 15 check. Characters from Senyaphin or Nazca can consider this a DC 10 check. DC 25 Necril is a notoriously hard language to learn in addition to being rather obscure outside specific countries and contexts. It's difficult for non-speakers to know if Anzu speaks the language well or not, but she seems confident in her fluency enough to translate texts in Necril or to serve as a rare translator for someone speaking Necril. Again, given her background and how she herself has said that she isn't an academic, it makes it baffling as to where she not only just learned the language, but learned it well enough to speak it or write it and understand when it's spoken to her. It couldn't just be from books; there's marked proficiency in hearing the language that makes it certain she learned from someone that spoke it to her. DC Natural 20 An oddity that several members of Moon Tree noticed is that once during a conversation about loyalties, Anzu reacted as if she had heard her own name in the middle of the conversation. She immediately asked, "What?" as if by reflex, and those involved tried to discern what word she could have possibly heard that made her respond like this, as the name Anzu isn't exactly easy to mistake for anything else -- to say nothing of how in every other circumstance, Anzu's attention to detail makes it unlikely this was a simple mistake. Furthermore, this happened shortly after Anzu joined Moon Tree a year ago, so the vast majority of the organization had never even heard her speak before. Anzu herself was cagey and didn't want to answer, so there were a few "tests" to bait out the problem word. Though Anzu didn't make the exact same mistake again by directly responding, she clearly looked up or otherwise reacted when the word loyal was said. Though it's unclear what language it might belong to, it's all but certain that the word loyal is somehow similar to a word in another language that Anzu is accustomed to responding to. It could have been a nickname or a pseudonym -- the latter would fit her generally secretive behavior, in any case... In the time since this incident, Anzu seems to have become desensitized to the word loyal and does not react to it like she once did, making it impossible to replicate this "experiment". She could have realized others were suspicious of her, or she might simply have just gone too long hearing the word she treated as her name. Furthermore, Sasaki Kohaku seemed to catch onto what was going on and warded people away from "harassing their colleagues for no real reason". It's unclear if Sasaki knows the reason behind Anzu's strange behavior or not. Category:Latus Category:Player Characters